CBS LOCAL DIGITAL MEDIA LAUNCHES QUESTION AND ANSWER SERVICE ON ITS 24 LOCAL WEBSITES

CBS Local Digital Media today officially launched its question and answers platform, a user-generated service where users can find information on a wide range of local topics, on its 24 local websites across the United States. The announcement was made by Ezra Kucharz, President, CBS Local Digital Media.

Visitors to websites such as CBSNewYork.com, CBSLosAngeles.com and CBSChicago.com, to name a few, can now ask and/or answer questions of interest to people in the markets served by CBS Local Digital Media. The service provides opportunities for the audience to populate the sites with detailed local information on arts & entertainment, autos, dining, education, family & parenting, fashion, health, home improvement, local businesses, music, pets, politics, real estate, relationships, sports, technology, travel and weather.

Located on the navigation bar at the top of the page, the “Get Answers” tab is organized by category, and allows the option to ask a question, search for answers, or join one of the already established dialogues with information pertinent to the discussion.The most popular and highest-rated questions are listed in a separate highlighted section.

Says Kucharz, “In a time where it is increasingly difficult for consumers to cull through the endless amount of data available on the Web, we have created a simple way to provide them with the information most important as they go about their day – information from people who live in their neighborhoods and share similar interests.

“So the next time you’re looking to know the easiest way to get to Yankee Stadium, where the best place is to see a concert, or how to create the ultimate Fourth of July barbeque, it will be as easy as logging on to one of our websites for an assortment of unbiased opinions.”

Coinciding with the official launch of the new product, visitors to CBS Local websites can enter a free national sweepstakes by participating in the process. During each of the next five weeks, CBS Local Media will present a $1,000 Amazon.com gift card to a randomly selected contributor to the local question and answers service. Users will receive an entry for each question they ask or answer, meaning participants will increase their chances of winning a weekly drawing by contributing multiple submissions each week during the sweepstakes period. Additional details and official sweepstakes rules appear on each CBS Local website.

About CBS Local Digital Media

In August 2010, CBS Local Digital Media launched CBSNewYork.com, the first website in the tri-state area that combines the best radio and television brands in local media and offers visitors a truly “local” New York experience. Since then, sites in 23 additional markets have debuted resulting in CBS Local being among the Top 5 most visited local properties on the web (comScore, April 2011). The sites include the latest news, traffic, weather and sports information audiences have come to expect from CBS’s prominent radio and television stations, along with local guides, tips on things to do and places to see, as well as discounts from businesses throughout the region, among a host of other information.